Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters celebrates one million hits!!!!

 

I'm proud of this day, the day when my blog has officially breached one million hits in the span of a little over five years.

What can I say but how thankful I am for those who have supported me, helped me, advised me, especially given me kind words, and most of all read my posts.

Initially the Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters blog began as an advertising tool for a self-published book I wrote of the same name. I wrote the book because I felt that the lgbtq community was not getting what it needed in terms of information to refute the lies of the religious right.

The book was published in 2007 and it was a very, very minor success. To be honest, it didn't come off like I wanted it to. One day I will go revisit it and maybe work on another edition.

But for now, it's all about this blog. So much has happened in the years I've been posting.

Marriage equality is now seen as an inevitability rather than an impossible dream.

We have an African-American president

Gays and lesbians can serve openly in the military

And most of all, our community has become more powerful. We have taken advantage of the internet age in terms of sending out information and reaching those in our community which we never have before. And we have become more sophisticated in exposing the right.

Years ago, a study like that awful one which was published recently about gay parenting would have devastated us. We wouldn't have been able to combat the junk science in it. But now we can and we have. We have become more intelligent, more consistent, and more direct in calling out the religious right when they lie on us.

I like to think that I play a part in that.

That's not to say there haven't been problems.

I do not act, I do not sing. I am not a celebrity. I do not live in a metropolitan area. I am an unconventional gay man - older, African-American, not twinkish at all, and from the South. No one is going to put me on camera as representative of the gay community no matter how much intelligence or finesse I possess and very rarely do I get the play I would like from some of the national groups or the attention I would like my blog to receive from some of the scoops I break.

And there are times in which I get depressed when I take into account the enormity of the fight for equality or when I wonder if my words are having an effect.

But those moments come and go like rain. They never stay. What does stay is my need to educate my lgbtq brothers and sisters on the basic fact that just about every negative thing said about us are lies.

We are not sinners, we are not filthy and evil, we are not sick, and we don't need prayer to change ourselves.

The lgbtq community is as God made us and as such, we are marvelous in His eyes.

Our sexual orientations are not things that we can take on or off nor are they "conditions" which we should be ashamed of or allow the ignorant to strip us of.

I am a gay man. That part of me as a crucial to my personhood as my ethnic heritage and my very humanity. No one can take that away from me. And no one will.

And as long as you keep reading, I will keep posting. To the right corner of this blog are some of what I consider the best posts I have done in these five and a half years. If you haven't yet, feel free to indulge yourselves.

One more thing:

Dear Peter LaBarbera, Peter Sprigg, Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, Tony Perkins, Matt Barber, National Organization for Marriage, Family Research Council and the rest of you nuts,

Thank you for being so transparently full of lies that you have given me more than enough material to work with in these five and a half years.

No doubt, you will continue to shuck and jive and lie in the name of God as you do those things that you think we are not hip to.

Please be aware that as long as you do them, I will be there to shine a light on your hypocrisy, laugh in your face, and expose your distortions in front of God and Man alike.

Also be aware that no matter how much money you have or influence you think you may have, the one thing you do not have and you will never have is truth.

You are going to lose this fight. Count on it.

'Minnesota anti-gay marriage group says 'gays should be put to death' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Minnesota for Marriage: Gays should be 'put to death' - There is it on the facebook page. This is not an exaggeration:

In other news:

Meet The “Social Scientists” Defending The Flawed New Same-Sex Parenting Study - It turns out that the flawed study on gay parenting has flawed defenders. Surprising? No. 

Chuck Norris Asks: 'Is Obama Creating a Pro-Gay Boy Scouts of America?' - Is Chuck Norris less and less like his character in 'Walker, Texas Ranger' and more and more like the bad guys his character fights? Yep. 

Related post - Chuck Norris - the fraud who won't stand up to real injustice 

 Maryland's Marriage Foes Are Broke - And it is also the reason why they have been able to get signatures for the referendum so easily. They have been paying a company to get them and now owe the company a huge amount of money.

  U.S. May Cut Aid To Uganda Because Of Anti-Gay Crackdown - One wonders if this is one cut that Boehner and company may object to. Just asking.

Religious right calls out Dick Cheney, Laura Bush for supporting marriage equality

Cheney

According to a fundraising letter sent out by the Family Research Council, several interesting names are listed as supposedly having gone on to the "dark side" of supporting marriage equality:

This week, most eyes are looking toward the Supreme Court and their decision on Obama Care, a decision that is expected most likely on Thursday.

I say most eyes, because what some national Republicans are doing on the issue of traditional marriage is worrisome, and someone has to keep an eye on them.

That's where the staff at FRC Action comes in.

The Republican National Convention is August 27 -30. The real fight however, is the week before when the Republican platform is decided.

FRC Action will be there to make sure the document that guides the Party of Lincoln for the next four years will be pro-life and pro-marriage.

Can I count on you to support our efforts?

It's important to note that Family Research Council Action is neither Democrat nor Republican. And while we certainly have plans to attend the Democrat convention in Charlotte North Carolina, the Republican Convention is the only one we have been invited to actively participate in.

We take that invitation very seriously.

Despite a majority of Americans who are pro-life and 30 states that have marriage protection in their state constitutions, we won't take it for granted that Republican Leadership will always respect that it's the social issues that have been at the heart of the party.

In conventions past, there has been controversy surrounding the pro-life plank in the party platform. This year, it appears that controversy has shifted to traditional marriage.

Strong voices within the Republican Party would like nothing more than to change the official stance in regards to marriage between one man and one woman:

Dick Cheney, former U.S. Vice President

Laura Bush, former U.S. First Lady

Ken Mehlman, former Chairman of the Republican National Convention

Former Governors Christine Todd Whitman (NJ), Gary Johnson (NM), Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA), Tom Kean (NJ), Dan Evans (WA), and William Weld (MA). 

I wonder how former President Bush would feel about his wife being used so precipitously in a fundraising letter.

Forget him. How about Cheney. How convenient is it that FRC comes out with this fundraising appeal days after his daughter, Mary Cheney, married her partner.

Both Laura Bush and Dick Cheney have come out in favor of marriage equality in their own way, which makes FRC's usage of them in a fundraising letter probably appropriate, if not uncomfortably odd seeing that opposition to marriage equality was the wedge issue which got Bush re-elected.

I would practically give my eyeteeth (whatever those are) to hear the reactions should he and Vice President Cheney find out about this fundraising appeal.

Thank General Mills and stick it to NOM!

As you all may or may not know, the National Organization for Marriage is angry at the Fortune 500 company General Mills.

General Mills recently announced its opposition to the anti-marriage equality amendment that NOM is working hard to pass in Minnesota.

Not only that but Ken Charles, vice president of global diversity and inclusion for General Mills, recently testified in favor of ENDA (Employee Non-Discrimination Act which would extend protections in hiring, promotion, and advancement to members of the lgbt community.

Naturally NOM is upset over all of this and has organized a Dump General Mills with its affiliate organizations:

In an e-mail to supporters, Minnesota for Marriage called the move “stupid” and announced it would be hold four days' worth of “Dump General Mills Rallies.”

“I know it seems odd for a company who spends billions of dollars marketing products to moms and dads with young children to do such a thing, but General Mill has tried to please a small minority of individuals who feel entitled to change the definition of marriage for all of society. They have calculated that we won't fight back. They have grossly miscalculated us!” wrote Andy Parrish, deputy campaign manager for Minnesota for Marriage.

The daily rallies will take place across from the company's Minneapolis headquarters starting on Tuesday, June 26. Supporters are being called on to bring General Mills products from home and dump them in a trailer to be donated to a local food bank.

Today's rally garnered a total so small that it could probably fit into a Cheerio. NOM itself has a Dump General Mills webpage petition (which I will not link to) which already has over 7,000 signatures.

I think we can do better than that.

The organization fighting that awful amendment in Minnesota, Minnesota United for All Families, has organized its own petition asking folks to thank General Mills for its support of the lgbt community:

Fortune 500 Company General Mills has just announced that the Golden Valley, MN corporation opposes the constitutional amendment seeking to limit the freedom to marry for committed same-sex couples in Minnesota.

Sign our petition today thanking General Mills for supporting all Minnesota families!

Click here to read about General Mill's decision on their company blog.

I think it would be in everyone's best interest to sign the petition thanking General Mills. It would definitely show that we appreciate whenever companies support our community.

And let's face it - you know you want to stick it to NOM.

Here is your chance.

'Religious right claims about gays in the military proven false' and other Tuesday midday news briefs

What they said… - An awesome post comparing religious right claims of the so-called dire consequences of gays and lesbians serving openly in the military with the reality of what is actually happening. 

 Congressional groups join for ''Invisible Lives'' forum on black LGBT experience - About time this got some attention.

 Janet Mefferd has No Use for Gay Rights 'Talking Points' that Make 'No Mention of Sodomy' - It's all about "booty sex" with these people. 

 Mild Wingnut Slap Fight: Porno Pete vs. Tony Perkins and Rand Paul - What if religious right talking heads had a short feud and no one cared?  

Gay Conversion Therapy Devastated My Family - A sad story about "ex-gay" therapy with a happy ending.

Anti-gay groups peddling discredited information, bearing false witness

Randy Thomasson

The American Family Association's One News Now is trumpeting a fact page put together by a California religious right group which supposedly proves that people are not born gay.

But it seems to me that the fake news source has put itself in a nasty corner:

A leading pro-family group has put together a fact page about alternate lifestyles as a tool to educate people that they are not "born gay."

 Randy Thomasson explains that SaveCalifornia.com's "Not Born This Way" webpage aims to educate individuals on the truth about alternate sexual orientations. The page provides facts about LGBT lifestyles, as well as scientific research disproving the popular claim that people are born homosexual.

"Without any reputable evidence, the entertainment culture, the uneducated media and homosexual activists have seduced today's teenagers, in particular, to believe that people are born homosexual," Thomasson recognizes. "However, science has found no biological basis for homosexuality, bisexuality or transsexuality."

The SaveCalifornia.com president reports that the homosexual lifestyle has the highest rate of cancer, sexually-transmitted diseases and early deaths. He also notes that the American Psychological Association has reversed its statement that people are born gay, admitting that there is no "gay gene."

First of all, let's put this "gay gene" argument out of the way. No major gay rights group or medical organization has ever said that there may be a "gay gene." The "gay gene" argument has never pushed by people on our side of the spectrum. It is a straw man argument pushed by religious right groups.

Legitimate medical organizations have said that sexuality is fluid and there is a danger with someone attempting to alter their sexual orientation via reparative or "ex-gay" therapy.

Homosexuality leads to cannibalism?

Three steps below the organizations like the Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage are the street preachers who come to pride events and shout all sorts of nonsense through bullhorns.

But these street preachers in Cleveland, OH win the booby prize:



Somebody definitely needs Jesus, but it ain't the folks who came to this pride to have a good time.

Hat tip to Back2Stonewall.